Draft gears for railway draft rigging



Dec. 18, 1956 E. a. FORSSELL 2,774,486

DRAFT GEARS FOR RAILWAY DRAFT RIGGING Filed July 18, 1955 :5 Sheets-Sheet 1 El E '5 Ii 1 4/ l 1 4.2 F 40 42 5T T5 Invenlor: 3' 5 4 Zric GI'orsseZZ.

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DRAFT GEARS FOR RAILWAY DRAFT RIGGING 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Dec. 18, 1956 Filed July 1-8, 1955 .IIIIIIV/l/y,

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I12 Van In'c QF'orsseZZ United States Patent DRAFT GEARS FOR RAILWAY DRAFT RIGGING Eric G. Forssell, Kenmore, N. Y., assignor to W. H. Miner, Inc., Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application July 18, 1955, Serial No. 522,596

7 Claims. (Cl. 213-45) This invention relates to draft gears for railway draft rigging.

It is a main object of the invention to provide an improved plunger for applying pressure to a resilient column that is encased in a metallic casing, which plunger carries retaining bars that are extendable from the base of the plunger to engage with flanges on the casing, thereby to hold the plunger in the casing and to hold the gear together as a unit.

.Another object of the invention is to provide, in a pressure applying plunger, grooves in which retaining bars have limited sliding lateral movement into and out of engagement with the flanges on the casing, thereby enabling the bars to hold the gear together as a unit and to provide other grooves opening out of the first grooves and into which lugs 0n the retaining bars project to prevent longitudinal movements of the bars.

Another object of the invention is to provide in a gear as set forth in the foregoing objects a front follower for the resilient column from which flanges project forwardly into press fit engagement with the base of the plunger, which flanges close the grooves in which the retaining bars are disposed to prevent movement of the bars out of the grooves.

Further objects of the invention not specifically mentioned here will be apparent from the detailed description and claims which follow, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown by way of example and in which:

Figure l is a front end elevational view of a completely assembled gear;

Figure 2 is a front end view of the casing with the plunger removed therefrom;

Figure 3 is a plan view of a retaining bar;

Figure 4 is an edge elevational view of the retaining bar;

Figure 5 is a cross sectional view through the retaining bar, taken substantially along the line 5-5 of Figure 3, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 6 is a cross sectional view through the gear, taken substantially along the line 66 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 7 is a front end view of the plunger;

Figure 8 is a plan view of the plunger;

Figure 9 is a side elevational view of the plunger;

Figure 10 is a front end elevational view of the gear partly assembled; and

Figure 11 is a cross sectional view, taken substantially along the line 11-11 of Figure 10, looking in the direction of the arrows.

As shown in the drawings, the gear of the present invention consists of a casing A in which is housed a resilient column consisting of rubber pads B and aligning separators C from which casing a pressure applying plunger D projects outwardly, the plunger carrying with it retaining bars E by which the gear is held together as a unit.

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The casing, which is of rectangular section, consists of top and bottom walls 10 and 11, respectively, and side walls 12 and 13, the casing being closed at its rear end by a solid wall 14 formed integrally with the top, bottom and side walls. At the front end of the casing, generally triangular flanges 15 project inwardly at the four corners of the end, which is otherwise open.

The details of the resilient column B are not of the essence of the present invention as any one of a number of columns may be used within those teachings. As shown, the column consists of a plurality of rubber pads B of known design and consisting of a pair of metal plates between which the rubber pad is disposed and bonded to the plates. The column is stabilized by stabilizing separators C which, in the example shown, are disposed between adjacent individual pads B. Each of the aligning separators C consists of a rear plate 20 from four edges of which flanges 21 project forwardly, these flanges extending but part way across the four sides of the plate 20. As will be seen best in Figure 2, the plate 20 is chamfered, as shown at 22, to permit insertion of the separators into the casing past the flanges 15. The flanges 21 on the separators have sliding engagement with the walls of the casing and serve to mantain the column properly aligned in the casing.

The plunger D consists of a generally rectangular base 30, chamfered at the corners as indicated at 31 to permit insertion of the plunger into the casing past the flanges 15. The base is of such dimension as to have press fit with the forwardly extending flanges 21 on the front one of the aligning separators C.

Opening into the vertically disposed sides of the base portion 30 of the plunger are grooves 32 which extend from top to bottom of the plunger base in the casing. Extending forwardly from the base 30 is a frustopyramidal section 33 reenforced centrally by an inner wall 34. Extending forwardly from the grooves 32 at the sides of the plunger are grooves 35 closed at their inner ends by walls 36 which project forwardly from the base 30 at right angles thereto.

The retaining bars, two in number, are identical in construction and consist of a base portion 40 of such thickness as to have sliding fit in the grooves 32. Extending forwardly from the base portion 40 is a lug 41 of such dimension as to have sliding fit in the grooves 35 into which the lug projects. The ends of the base portion 40 are chamfered at 42 to permit the retaining bars to clear the flanges 15 on the casing.

In assembling the gear, the casing A is placed open end uppermost and the units B and separators C of the column are placed therein. Retaining bars E are inserted the plunger sufficient to compress the column and to telescope the plunger into the casing sufficiently to position the ends of the retaining bars E rearwardly of the flanges 15 on the casing. A suitable tool is then inserted in the space 43 between the lug 41 of the retaining bar and the inner wall 36 of the groove 35 to force the retaining wall laterally outwardly in the grooves .32 into the position in which it is shown at the left of Figures 10 and 11. When both retaining bars havethus been forced outwardly, welds 44 are made between the lugs 41 and the the forwardly extending walls of the grooves 35 to retain the retaining bars in this outward position. Pressure is then removed from the plunger and the column allowed to expand to bring the ends of the retaining bar into engagement with the rear faces of the flanges 15,

thereby to secure the gear together as a unit.

When the gear is installed in the usual yoke and pocket of a railway-draft rigging, pressureis applied to the plunger, moves it inwardly of the casing to compress the pads in the column and upon removal of this pressure the column expands, forcing the plunger outwardly until the retaining bars E engage thefianges -15 of the casing. I

Having thus complied with the statutes and shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, what I consider new and desire to have protected by Letters Patent is pointed out in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A draft gear for railway draftriggiing comprising: aimetallic casing of rectangular section closed at its rear end open at its front end; aresilientcolumn in said casing; a .pressureapplying plunger telescoped into said casing and projecting forwardly therefrom; a generally rectangular base on said plunger; grooves in the sides of said base extending from the top to the bottom of the base; a retainer bar disposed 'in each groove extending from .end to end thereof and having a portion at each end of the bar extending beyond the groove; and triangular flanges at the front corners of the casing engaged by said extending'portionsof the retaining bars for holding the plunger in the casing, thereby to hold the gear together as a unit.

2. A draft gear as specified in claim 1 in which the resilient column is composed of metal faced solid rubber pads of generally rectangular shape with the corners angled to permit insertion of the pads past said triangular flanges and through the open end of the casing.

3. A draft gear as specified in claim 1 in which the base of the plunger is angled at the corners of the base ,4 to clear the triangular flanges on the casing and in which the extending portions of the retaining bars project from the groove at the angled corners of the base to engage said flanges.

4. A draft gear as specified in claim 1 in which the sides of the plunger each contain a second groove extending forwardly fromfthe first mentioned groove at right angles thereto and in which the retaining bars carry a lug projecting forwardly therefrom into said second groove and engaging .the 'walls .of the second .groove to lock the retaining'bars against movement longitudinally in the first mentioned grooves.

5. A draft gear as specified "in claim 1 in which the pads in the column are separated by stabilizing separators, each of Which has a flange on each of its sides extending forwardly, and in which the flanges on the forward stabilizing separator have press fit with the base of the plunger and extend across the grooves in the sides of that base "to close the grooves and prevent movement of the retaining bars laterally out of the grooves.

'6. A draft gear as specified in claim 1 in which the grooves in the sides of thep'lun'ger are deeper than the width of the retaining 'bars to permit the bars to be moved laterallyinwar'dly of the base, thereby to retract the extending portions of the'bar into the base to clear theiflanges on the casing and permit entry and removal of the plunger from the casing.

7. A draftgear as specified in claim 1 in which the retaining bars are fixed in extended position with the extending portions disposed behind the flanges on the ca'si'ng'by Welds fixing the forwardly extending lugs on the bars to 'ithe'plunger.

No references cited. 

